Shenzhou-10 (SZ-10)

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  39179 / 13029A Launch date - time  11 Jun 2013 - 09:38 UT Launch site  Jiuquan, SLS-1 Launch vehicle  CZ-2F/G Mass (kg)  7800 kg Docking date - time  13 Jun 2013 - 05:11 UT Target spacecraft  Tiangong 1 spacelab Earth orbit:    - Perigee / Apogee  330 x 340 km    - Eccentricity      - Inclination  42.4 °    - Period   min Undocking date - time  23 Jun 2013 - 00:26 UT Docking date - time  23 Jun 2013 - 02:00 UT Target spacecraft  Tiangong 1 spacelab Undocking date - time  24 Jun 2013 - 23:05 UT Deorbit burn date - time  25 Jun 2013 - 23:23 UT Landing date - time  26 Jun 2013 - 00:07 UT Landing location  111.36E 42.33N Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  14d 14h 29m Nbr orbits  229

Crew:

Backup Crew

Description:

• The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft will complete manual and automated docking trials with the Tiangong 1 spacecraft, forming a 60-foot-long scientific complex for research experiments and engineering tests. Shenzhou 10 may also make a flyaround of Tiangong 1, an activity not attempted on the Shenzhou 9 flight.
• The astronauts will also broadcast a science lecture to students from Tiangong 1, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
• Shenzhou 10 will be the last mission to visit Tiangong 1, which launched in September 2011 and has received an unmanned Shenzhou craft and one crewed vehicle.
• China is constructing the Tiangong 2 spacecraft for launch in 2014. Tiangong 2 is a second-generation lab module designed to be visited by further astronaut crews for longer-duration missions.

Flight details:

• China's Shenzhou 10 spaceship was launched on Jun 11, 2013 carrying three astronauts. Shenzhou 10 Commander (zhiling zhang) is Maj-Gen. Nie Haisheng; Operator (caozuo shou) is Air Force Lt-Col. Zhang Xiaoguang, and Experiment Officer (shiyan yuan) is Air Force Major Wang Yaping. Shenzhou 10 reached a 198 x 310 km orbit, soon raised to 260 x 313 km on its way to a rendezvous with the Tiangong-1 spacelab.
• The manned space capsule docked with Tiangong 1 at 0511 GMT (1:11 a.m. EDT; 1:11 p.m. Beijing time) on Jun 13, and mechanisms pulled the two spacecraft together for tight seal seven minutes later.
  
  

  The three-person Shenzhou 10 crew departs on the way to the launch pad. Credit: CCTV/Spaceflight Now

  Image of the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft captured from video recorded at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center. Credit: CCTV/Xinhua

  
  
• Shenzhou 10's three astronauts - commander Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and Wang Yaping - were expected to enter Tiangong 1 through a 31-inch-diameter passageway later Thursday.
  The astronauts have a busy schedule of medical, physiological and technology experiments over the next 12 days aboard Tiangong 1 before departing the mini-space station and returning to Earth, closing out a 15-day flight in orbit.
• The automated rendezvous began at 0248 GMT (10:48 p.m. EDT; 10:48 a.m. Beijing time). The Shenzhou 10 craft used laser and radar sensors to guide itself to Tiangong 1's docking port, where the spacecraft linked together with a docking system similar to the Russian-designed APAS system, which was used in the joint U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the assembly of the Russian space station Mir and by space shuttles visiting the International Space Station.
  
  

  Artist's concept of the Tiangong 1 and Shenzhou 10 spacecraft docked in orbit. Credit: CASC

  Wang Yaping on board

  
  
• On Jun 23, 2013 the SZ-10 crew carried out a redocking exercise. They undocked Shenzhou 10 from Tiangong at 0026 UTC and redocked with it at 0200 UTC. On Jun 24 SZ-10 undocked again for the final time, made a flyaround of the TG-1 lab and then prepared to return to Earth. The deorbit burn was at about 2323 UTC Jun 25.
• The spaceship landed in China at 0007 UTC Jun 26, at 111.36E 42.33N according to commenters on the nasaspaceflight.com forum.
  
  

  Shenzhou 10 landing

  
  

Astrophilately covers:

Launch cancel. Credit: #411

Docking cancel Shenzhou 10 and Tiangong 1. Credit: #411

Landing cancel. Credit: #411

Crew Shenzhou 10. Credit: #411

Launch cancel. Credit: #411a

Recovery Shenzhou 10. Credit: #411a